it’s all about hockey in my home tonight. it’s the first time in the team’s history making the playoffs. joe’s been talking about it all day, and i know his friends are as much glued to their televisions right now as he is. he’s already worrying about what he’ll do if it goes to games 5 and 6 next friday and sunday, as we won’t be getting directtv hooked up until monday. poor, poor boy.

it’ll be fun to watch. hockey’s a pretty fun sport. but, i’m sure in 30 minutes i’ll wander into another room to watch survivor. joe’s not too into that show anyway, so he won’t miss anything.

speaking of tv, notes from the underbelly starts tonight. i’m interested to see how it is. the commercials look funny, but you never can tell.

the cold air, whooshing of the players as they skated by and the slams as players knocked each other into the plexiglass walls was exhilirating. the tens of thousands of fans jumped and yelled as they banged their inflatable hockey sticks together when the thrashers scored or the rangers got a penalty, and the arena reverberated with boos when the opposite occured. it was the same as other sporting games i’ve attended, but the speed made it much, much different.

our friend jon with his inflatable hockey sticks.

we sat about six rows from the ice right by one of the goals, which was fantastic when the action was on our end but not so great when they players were on the other side because the plexiglass distorts your view.

the game was 2-2 near the end, and the crowd was on its feet willing the thrashers to score. they didn’t, and it was onto overtime.

joe’s friend brandon, who also went with us.

after a scoreless overtime the game went into a shootout. i’ve never even seen a shootout on tv, but it was pretty cool, and, surprisingly enough, both teams scored two points.

it was down to one team scoring and the other team not. rangers shoot and miss. thrashers shoot and SCORE!